Frank Denton: The T-U and you in 2013

To put it mildly, 2013 promises to be a very interesting and important year for you and the T-U.

The common denominator, of course, is news, and there’ll be no lack of that all year.

Congress and the president will attempt, again, to take on some mantle of responsibility and statesmanship as they confront the public’s irrational demands for spending more than it wants to pay. And they’ll see if they can do anything about our penchant for violence.

In Tallahassee, while Gov. Rick Scott tries to divine how he can be re-elected, the Legislature will try to figure out how to fill a bushel of needs with a peck of dollars, no doubt while humoring the majority party’s ideological theories.

Locally, while Mayor Alvin Brown tries to divine how he can be re-elected, he and the council will be working to fulfill and change the unrealistic public-pension promises made by previous politicians who knew they wouldn’t have to pay the piper.

And in several important formats — JAX2025, the mayor’s education summit, the Public Education Fund and our own Hope project, among others — you’ll be figuring out how to do a better job of educating and nurturing our children and our community.

Whew! No shortage of challenges there.

Fortunately, we’ll be helping along the way — doing our best to keep you informed, engaged and, if you so choose, involved.

As we announced a month ago, we are doing a national search for six new journalists, including three investigative reporters who, along with our existing staff, will be well equipped to ferret out the news and information some people don’t want you to know. When we find out, so will you.

The other three: a new editorial writer (adding diversity to our editorial board), a senior editor especially qualified to make our digital media ever more powerful and a team leader to expand business coverage.

We’re planning other improvements in our journalism that we’re still developing.

As for specific areas of coverage and editorializing, you can count on our commitment to these:

■ We’ll be fully engaged in the JAX2025 community-visioning project being led by JCCI, with your active involvement, at least in sharing your opinions and priorities.

■ The economy is recovering from the recession, albeit slowly, and we’ll be keeping a close eye on local and regional economic development, particularly at JaxPort, and employment.

■ The Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra is in deep financial trouble and needs ground-up restrategizing to avoid becoming extinct, like too many other orchestras around the country. The orchestra is a cultural jewel too important to lose. We’ll be all over it.

■ A provocative and insightful exhibit called “Race: Are We So Different?” will open at the Museum of Science and History in three weeks, and the mind-expanding theme will be examined by our other cultural institutions and by the T-U over three months.

■ Last year was a big year of change for the Jaguars, and 2013 likely will be too. Shad Khan doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who’ll accept 2-14.

■ In fact, as we’ve noted, there is new leadership and more to come all over the city. We’ll vet candidates, help orient the new leaders, get you acquainted with them — and then keep a close eye on their progress.

■ On the Opinion page, we’ll follow Matthew Gilbert Middle School to get a ground-level view of educational progress at a school in a poor area with a strong principal.

■ We’ll continue to celebrate our town’s successes, with the A Better World series and our Monday Cheers on the Opinion page, in our EVE and 10 Who Make a Difference awards and … well, all over the newspaper and Jacksonville.com.

■ Watch our digital media — especially our new Members website — as we make substantial enhancements and show how they can be even more powerful than the newspaper you hold in your hands.

Most importantly, we’ll cover the news as it happens, whatever comes up — and it will come up. You can count on us to tell you what happened, why it happened, what it means and what you, and we as a community, can do about it.

We’d appreciate your feedback on all this, as well as your ideas and suggestions.

If you really care about promoting more knowledge and understanding, the first thing to do is get rid of the Ann Coulter column. There are plenty of other right-wingers who aren't quite so rabid and hateful as this horrible woman. You're obviously pandering to the loudmouth loons who worship the likes of Limbaugh.